Creating a Document Version

To track the evolution of your documents through the project lifecycle, you can create unique document versions at various stages of the project. You create the new version by checking in your document or content item. Creating a document or content version provides you with an exact record of the document as it was at the time you performed the check-in operation.

To create a document version, you select Document > Check In. To create a content version, you select or Content > Check In.

After checking in various document and content versions, you can include selected versions as part of a document baseline. The selected document version should contain the information you need for your specific project milestone. For example, the selected document version could be used to create a document baseline for a design document, a contract, or a bill of materials. For more information on creating a document baseline, see “Baselining Documents”.

After checking in a document version, you can view the created version but you cannot perform any significant edits on it. In addition, you cannot modify any fields on the document version unless they have been marked as editable by an administrator.

When viewing a document version, all menu commands and toolbar buttons related to inserting, moving, copying, or deleting, are disabled in the Windchill RV&S GUI and web interface. In addition, when working with a document or content version, you cannot:

If a command does not support the use of a version ID, Windchill RV&S displays an error message when you enter the ID of a versioned document or content item. You cannot check in a versioned document or content item.

Item Backed Pick List (IBPL) fields are copied as part of a document version. The copied IBPL fields reference the item IDs that existed at the time you checked in the version; however, the value displayed for the IBPL field is the value of the live item as the item is now. The value of pick list itself is recorded and does not change; however values displayed for the IBPL fields can change if the referenced live item is changed.

Query Backed Relationship (QBR) fields are not copied as part of a document version. The items returned by the QBR on the document version are calculated as of the time of viewing, based on the current field definition. The values of the returned items are as the item is now. The values are not displayed historically.

Relationship fields are copied as part of a document version. Relationship field values in the document version always point to live items and not to the versioned items.

To be copied to the document version, the backward relationship field must allow multiple values. For example, to copy all relationship fields, the items that are related to the versioned content must allow multiple values. A multi-valued relationship field that is included in the version will contain the same relationship field values as the live items it points to.

If the document has a backward relationship field that allows only single values, Windchill RV&S displays the Ignore single-valued relationship fields dialog box. Under Details, you can review information on the relationship fields that will not be included in the version.

To have a relationship field configured to allow multiple values, contact your Windchill RV&S administrator.

The Shares and Shared By relationships fields are not copied as part of a document version. If the original document content had values for the Shares or Shared By relationship field, the resulting content version will not contain any values for Shares or Shared By.

Since document and content versions cannot be changed, no values are shown for Shares or Shared By relationship fields.

If you view a versioned content item outside the context of a document, the value of the Contains or Contained By relationship field will be unknown (or ambiguous). If a Contains or Contained By relationship field has an unknown value, Windchill RV&S displays an ambiguous field value icon (

) and a tooltip to indicate that the value of the field cannot be calculated.

If a field value attribute (FVA) field uses the Contained by field, the FVA field may be ambiguous and displays the ambiguous computation icon.

Source links are copied as part of a check in and are not re-evaluated to ensure they are still valid links. Source Traces are not copied as part of a check in.

When working with a document version, you can use dynamic views to display item and relationship information. As you select the contents of a versioned document, the Item dynamic view updates automatically to display the recorded information for your selection.

When viewing a document version, the Relationships dynamic view also updates automatically to display the relationship information for your selection; however, details are not displayed for Contains or Contained By relationships.

Although a document version represents a record of a document at a specific point in the document's history, some fields in the individual item versions may continue to update based on the field definition. These are known as live fields, indicated by the live field icon (

For computed fields, your administrator can configure whether or not they update based on the computed field definition.

The following fields always update based on the field definition:

• phase fields (an icon displays if the referenced field is configured to update based on the field definition)

• field value attribute fields (an icon displays if the referenced field is configured to update based on the field definition, which can include any of the above fields, a field on a live item, or where the backing relationship is editable)

The live field icon (

) displays based on the current field configuration, not the field configuration at the time of versioning. For example, changing a field configuration to be editable or allow updates after versioning displays a live field icon in all item versions.

There are situations where fields with computed expressions cannot be computed. To indicate an unknown (or ambiguous) computed field value in a versioned item, Windchill RV&S displays an ambiguous computation icon (

When sorting a list using the ID field, the Windchill RV&S client sorts query results and relationship fields in numerical order. If versioning is enabled for the Windchill RV&S type, the Windchill RV&S client performs numerical sorting using the version ID of the document or content item (that is, Live Item ID-M.m). Numerical sorting by version ID applies for the Windchill RV&S client GUI, Web, and CLI only when document versioning is enabled for a type.

For example, this list shows an ascending numerical order for query results that contain both live and versioned documents:

By default, if versioning is enabled for the type, the Windchill RV&S client sorts relationship field lists numerically, according to the version ID of the document or content item.

When viewing the results through Windchill RV&S API or CLI, the list may appear to have an incorrect sequence. The results are sorted based on the internal ID of the segment or content item whereas the displayed IDs are the version IDs (that is, Live Item ID-M.m). Depending on the numbers assigned to the internal IDs, the display list may appear to be out of sequence.

Test Steps are not currently supported for versioned items. When creating a new version, Test Steps and Shared Test Steps fields are not copied to the new version. The Windchill RV&S client WEB, GUI, and CLI display a message indicating that Test Steps are not supported for versioned items. The Windchill RV&S API displays an empty value.

In addition, the following limitations apply:

• Review Session relationships are not copied to the new version because they are a single-valued relationship field. (Only multi-valued relationships fields can be copied.)

If a document and its content were previously revisioned using the Increment Revision command in Integrity 10.4 or earlier and they contained no significant edits, performing an initial check in of the document or content successfully creates a document version or content version. This applies to a previously revisioned document and its content only.